Back to School Shopping Already in Full Swing

JONESBORO, AR -- With less than a month to go before many students are scheduled to be back in the classroom, parents are already preparing for the return.

For kids, the lazy days of sleeping in and watching TV are winding down and it will soon be time to hit the books and get behind the desk.

For many parents, it's a relief to get the kids back in class... but it all comes with a price and a lot of supplies.

"If you do it early it's not that bad, if you try and wait until a week or two before school, there will be so many people down this aisle that you won't be able to walk through it! And if you don't have three kids that helps too," laughed Candace Scudder as she shopped for school supplies with her children at the Parker Road Wal-Mart in Jonesboro.

Scudder has her hands full trying to do her back to school shopping. She estimates that she'll spend between $200 and $300 for supplies and new clothes for just two of her children to go to school this fall.

"A lot of the stuff isn't but like a dollar," said Scudder, "The crayons and stuff are like $0.20. It's just the big stuff that cost a lot, the Kleenexes and the hand cleaner and the stuff like that."

"I remember when I was in school we needed the paper and the spiral notebooks and stuff but that's all I remember needing," said Angela Tinsley as she shopped with her son Aaron, "I don't remember us needing as many of the markers and the highlighters and the erasable markers and stuff like that."

Tinsley has already spent about $50 on her son supplies for the third grade and she's always looking for a bargain.

"At home she looks for school supplies that we already have and when she's free to shop, she goes and gets that," said Aaron Tinsley.

Angela Tinsley said, "The only thing we lack is a backpack and he wanted to pick that out himself."